Max
12-22-2002, 02:23 PM
Disabled man, mother come home to ruins
By KIM BELL Post-Dispatch
12/20/2002 08:51 PM
Mary Sims stands in what used to be her son Jeremy's bedroom at their home at 115 E. Loretta in Lemay after a fire destroyed it while they were away Friday morning.
( KAREN ELSHOUT/P-D)
A Lemay woman and her severely disabled son returned from the hospital Friday to find their home - and the son's specially designed wheelchair - gutted in an apparent electrical fire.
"I've been saying, 'Why me?'" said a tearful Mary Sims as she picked through the charred remains of her living room.
"There were Christmas presents for my son here somewhere," she said, motioning to a pile of blackened debris. "Computer games, videotapes. It's all gone."
No one was home about 10 a.m. Friday when the fire spread enough to attract the attention of neighbors in the 100 block of East Loretta Avenue.
Capt. David Foote of the Lemay Fire Protection District speculates that an electrical circuit overloaded and wiring in a basement wall caught fire.
Sims and her son, Jeremy Oldham, 21, had left home about an hour earlier. They went to Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital so the new braces on Oldham's legs could be readjusted.
Oldham has cerebral palsy. He cannot talk or walk. He communicates using signals he and his mother invented. Oldham is too heavy now for his parents to carry him to the second-floor bedroom, so he sleeps on the first floor of their modest two-story house, in what had been a dining room.
A handwritten sign taped to the front porch says, "Do Not Disturb. Sick Child! Thank you."
Oldham underwent surgery in October on his legs, feet and groin because of poor circulation and to get his legs to stretch. He was back in the hospital on Thanksgiving because of pain.
"We were looking forward to a nice Christmas and rejoicing that Jeremy's home," said his grandmother, Virginia Raybrook of St. Louis. "He's my heartbeat. He's been through so much. And now this."
Lost in the fire were Oldham's personal computer, which had special features to allow him to control the keyboard; his hospital bed; and a wheelchair specially fitted six months ago to the contour of his body.
"We'd waited for that wheelchair for a year," Sims said. "And the bed, we'd been fighting to get, knowing his surgery was coming up. I can't lift him anymore out of a regular bed.
"I'm going to need everything now," Sims added. "But my main concern is finding a place to stay with my son."
The first floor and part of the second floor were gutted. The family's home was insured. Asked about accommodations, an adjuster at the scene Friday afternoon told relatives that the family would be partly reimbursed after Christmas if they ended up staying in a motel.
Sims is on disability; she suffers from arthritis and diabetes. Her husband, Chris Sims, works for a plumbing contracting business, a new job he landed after being in and out of work due to layoffs in the printing trade for nearly two years. Oldham's father died last year.
"It's been hell for them the last year," Raybrook said. "But my children are alive, and I thank God for that. We'll take the rest one step at a time."
Fund may be set up
The family is trying to establish a fund to receive donations, but details hadn't been worked out as of Friday night.
Reporter Kim Bell:
E-mail: kbell@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8115
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http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/926D8AAD66D6101686256C960011D3D8?OpenDocument&Headline=Fire+destroys+Christmas+gifts,+man's+spec ial+wheelchair+
By KIM BELL Post-Dispatch
12/20/2002 08:51 PM
Mary Sims stands in what used to be her son Jeremy's bedroom at their home at 115 E. Loretta in Lemay after a fire destroyed it while they were away Friday morning.
( KAREN ELSHOUT/P-D)
A Lemay woman and her severely disabled son returned from the hospital Friday to find their home - and the son's specially designed wheelchair - gutted in an apparent electrical fire.
"I've been saying, 'Why me?'" said a tearful Mary Sims as she picked through the charred remains of her living room.
"There were Christmas presents for my son here somewhere," she said, motioning to a pile of blackened debris. "Computer games, videotapes. It's all gone."
No one was home about 10 a.m. Friday when the fire spread enough to attract the attention of neighbors in the 100 block of East Loretta Avenue.
Capt. David Foote of the Lemay Fire Protection District speculates that an electrical circuit overloaded and wiring in a basement wall caught fire.
Sims and her son, Jeremy Oldham, 21, had left home about an hour earlier. They went to Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital so the new braces on Oldham's legs could be readjusted.
Oldham has cerebral palsy. He cannot talk or walk. He communicates using signals he and his mother invented. Oldham is too heavy now for his parents to carry him to the second-floor bedroom, so he sleeps on the first floor of their modest two-story house, in what had been a dining room.
A handwritten sign taped to the front porch says, "Do Not Disturb. Sick Child! Thank you."
Oldham underwent surgery in October on his legs, feet and groin because of poor circulation and to get his legs to stretch. He was back in the hospital on Thanksgiving because of pain.
"We were looking forward to a nice Christmas and rejoicing that Jeremy's home," said his grandmother, Virginia Raybrook of St. Louis. "He's my heartbeat. He's been through so much. And now this."
Lost in the fire were Oldham's personal computer, which had special features to allow him to control the keyboard; his hospital bed; and a wheelchair specially fitted six months ago to the contour of his body.
"We'd waited for that wheelchair for a year," Sims said. "And the bed, we'd been fighting to get, knowing his surgery was coming up. I can't lift him anymore out of a regular bed.
"I'm going to need everything now," Sims added. "But my main concern is finding a place to stay with my son."
The first floor and part of the second floor were gutted. The family's home was insured. Asked about accommodations, an adjuster at the scene Friday afternoon told relatives that the family would be partly reimbursed after Christmas if they ended up staying in a motel.
Sims is on disability; she suffers from arthritis and diabetes. Her husband, Chris Sims, works for a plumbing contracting business, a new job he landed after being in and out of work due to layoffs in the printing trade for nearly two years. Oldham's father died last year.
"It's been hell for them the last year," Raybrook said. "But my children are alive, and I thank God for that. We'll take the rest one step at a time."
Fund may be set up
The family is trying to establish a fund to receive donations, but details hadn't been worked out as of Friday night.
Reporter Kim Bell:
E-mail: kbell@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8115
[back]
E-mail this Story to a friend
Printer Friendly
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/926D8AAD66D6101686256C960011D3D8?OpenDocument&Headline=Fire+destroys+Christmas+gifts,+man's+spec ial+wheelchair+